Reims 1952

Clearly Guermonprez was working along two - as he hoped convergent - lines: on the one hand trying to create an opening in De Rougemont's plans with the Foyers de Culture in order to bring the Folkhighschools in, on the other hand bringing about a Europe-wide cooperation between these Folk­highschools. Yet developments along this line were to be very carefully pursued as Guermonprez had indicated ear­lier evidently to avoid that the bonds being forged at the Méridon meeting in May with its large Scandinavian par­tici­pation would be damaged by the somewhat hasty approach with its formal character of a European cooperation in this field as advocated by De Rougemont and the French Foyers de Culture.

The Youth Campaign having received a number of names from Guermonprez and Schouten of people to be invited for the Reims conference, once more insisted however to have nominations for Scandinavia too;

"I understand very we­ll" - Jacques Eugène wrote (letter dated 10 Sept. 19­52) - "your wish to establish first and foremost the cooperation with the Folkhighschools of these countries, but on the other hand the Scandinavian support which is of no little importance in this matter, would be very much welcomed by the other participants". Eugène of course would have liked to have a meeting in which repre­sentatives from all over Europe would take part, and he suggested that if not from the Folkhighschools, then perhaps from youth-centres or evening colleges representa­tives could be sought. Guermonprez indeed followed up this suggestion and proposed that the directors of two "day-Folkhighschools", in Copenhagen (Borup) and Stockholm (Hammer from Birkagärden) be invited.

Meanwhile the invitations for the first General Assembly of the European secretariat of the Cultural Centres (Foy­ers de Culture) to be held at Reims at the Foyer Saint Exupéry (director A. Railliet) on October 9, 1952 had been sent out.

This formal General Assembly was to be followed by a conference on adult education (éducation populaire) orga­nised by the European Youth Campaign. The Assembly was to adopt the draft constitution, to elect members of the governing body and to decide on a plan of action for '53. The Conference had on its agenda the key-note speech by O.V.L. Guermonprez on: "The Cultural Centres -centres for human, civic and social education" ("Les Foyers de Culture - centres de formation humaine, civique et sociale"). Guermonprez was announced in his capacity of "directeur de la Volkshogeschool et du Centre Européen des Ecoles Supé­rieures Populaires fixes et itinérantes de Bergen"! This later reference sees to the Agency for European Folkhighschoolwork as it was to be called later. Other spea­kers were Raymond Berrurier, mayor of Mesnil St. Denis and general secretary of the French committee of the Council of "Communes d'Europe" and as notary public for Méridon a friend of Guermonprez, on "The role of Cultural Centres in community life"; and Denis de Rougemont on "The Foyers de Culture and Europe".

Most participants - understandably - were representatives of French organisations and cultural centres; among them Jean Laborey (CNFR), A. Léger (Délégue Général of the Fédération Française des Maisons des Jeunes et de la Culture"), Lucien Trichaud (idem) and Guy Madiot (idem).

From Britain came MS. Muriel Smith, officer for Community Centres - the London Council of Social Services; Erik Halvorsen (Høejskolernes Sekretariat) and Vilhelm Nielsen (Hilleroed Folkehoejskole) from Denmark; Tore Lundin, direc­tor of ABF from Sweden: Odd Norland, State Council for popular education, from Norway. For the Netherlands Oscar Guermonprez and Bob Schouten were present.

In the discussions during the formal General Assembly it became clear that several crucial issues lay hidden in the conceptions with which De Rougemont c.s. had believed that their "European secretariat of Cultural Centres" could be given a flying start. There was the feeling of being hastily overruled with a"ready-made" constitution prepared in the preliminary meetings in Brussels and Geneva (March and May 1952) in which the presence of Belgian and French cultural centres had been predominant. And the formal and legalistic approach was less appreciated by the "Northern" participants in the present conference.

Other points raised - Guermonprez initiating most of the interventi­ons - were the relationship with the Internatio­nal Federa­tion of Settlements and that with the Centre d'Échanges Internationaux. From the point of view of those who wanted to establish a European cooperation of Residen­tial Colle­ges and Folkhighschools - as Guermonprez c.s. were trying to do - it was quite obvious that a distinc­tion between locally operating centres and residential ones should be made.

Moreover - as Folkhighschools were already organising exchanges themselves (Ecoles Supérieures fixes et itinéra­ntes!) leaving the secretariat in the hands of the Centre of International Exchanges, seemed to be little attrac­tive.

And finally the great diversity of institutions which the new organisation had in mind to bring together - however enriching this according to De Rougemont might be - did not appeal to many. Bob Schouten, in his book on the first 25 years of the Bureau gives a vivid eye-witness account of the proceedings.

At the end of the meeting a resolution was put forward, tabled by the representatives from Sweden, Norway, Den­mark, the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain which deserves to be quoted in full.

"The representatives from (etc.) discussed the constitution of the "Communauté de Foyers de Culture" and put forward as personal opinion the following: that it was very important to have a round-table where cultural work in Europe could be discussed and they appreciated the opportunity which this conference had given for people from different countries to meet toge­ther. They considered that such conference furthered the spirit of European cooperation.
They felt however that it was not necessary, or even desirable at this stage to have a rigid organisation, though they wished to stress the need for conferences such as this and study-courses, with a secretariat which would also do research and collect and circulate information.
They thought that at present this might best be done by the European Youth Campaign and the European Centre of Culture at Geneva, perhaps in cooperation with the cultu­ral committee of the European Council, and that in the future, out of these conferences, might grow a special organisation for this work".

(text in manuscript, original French by Guermonprez; English version by Ms. M. Smith)

This resolution is not contained in the formal minutes of the meeting, but it is quite clear that its acceptance meant that a fundamentally different course had to be taken.

The minutes just state that the elected governing commit­tee should study the question and make new propo­sals. In this committee, with four members from French and Belgian cultural centres, three other seats wee reserved for "the countries of the North" (i.e. Netherlands and Scandinavia) and for Germany.

The Conference, the next day following this meeting, under the chairmanship of Jacques Eugène, opened with the speech of Guermonprez. The not published manuscript shows that he essentially, though constantly speaking of "cultural centres", attributed to them the roles which a Folk­highschool in the Grundtvigian philosophy should have.

The discussion that followed his speech and those of the other speakers mentioned, according to Bob Schouten, centred around the question whether a specific adult education secretariat should not be established and if so where it could be independently positioned. Clearly empha­sis in this conference, with speeches geared to the sub­ject-matter instead of organisation formalities, had shifted from a discussion about a ready-made European construction for "cultural centres" - whatever those might be - to the much more open question of how to organise a European cooperation of adult education organisations.